When hospice reverts to the lowest common denominator and leaders obsess about metrics, it's time to speak. Self-inflated leaders assume clinicians give until their backs break, given no raises for years. A clinical ladder is a rainbow’s pot of gold. Others have a sorrier job and must be motivated by money. Abysmal leaders dangle extrinsic rewards for admission, hiring and EDBITA targets. “Sign on” bonuses entice people into a poor work environment. Employees’ voice equals their raise, zero.

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Retirement remains wonderful. I was surprised by the time it took to detoxify from Generic Hospice. It wasn't physically demanding like drug withdrawal but it took weeks to a full month for my body to expel Generic's corporate toxins. I realized their poisons arose from company psychopathy, characterized by a corporate brain hyper-sensitive to reward and under-sensitive to the suffering of others. I venture that's what you're experiencing at your hospice site.

Beware. The corporate psychopathic brain is vengeful, hypersensitive to punishing those it views as being in opposition. It is both emotional and logical, given opposers could hurt their chances for reward.

You think you're making points that thoughtful leaders would explore. Their myopia sees their career or the company at risk. It also underlies what you describe as Gentiva executives' penchant for personalizing issues (shooting the messenger) and retaliating.

I imagine it's a very dangerous time in the life of Gentiva-Kindred employees. A shiny, new corporate image must be upheld and merger promises must be met, thus ensuring top leaders get their out-sized rewards. The pyschopathic corporation does not play fair and it knows no bounds. Everything is permissible as long as management wins for themselves. I hope you win the lottery and can join me in retirement.

I receive e-mails from fellow employees sharing their stories of management malfeasance. I'd love to share them but
Gentiva's leaders are so vengeful I can't risk doing so. We all have to
earn a living and many of us choose to ignore our limited bosses to help patients in our community or simply to make a living..

I
have good friends in HR, thankfully not with Gentiva. They were
shocked when I told them some of the things management has said to our
staff. It's consistently weird, like they have one hand open inviting us to speak our
thoughts and the other hand cocked, ready to beat whoever says the
wrong thing.

The wrong thing is any truth that conflicts with the company's dictates. It matters not if the truth comes from patients or employees. Both are easily discounted and cast aside. Heaven forbid anyone disturb the illusion that the company can have it all. Where in Kindred's or Gentiva's mission, vision or values does it state management should be enriched beyond measure? Nowhere, but that's clearly the top priority.

I had a modicum of hope Kindred would bring
sanity to Gentiva's management absurdities but that has not been the
case. Fortunately, we have intrinsically motivated staff who support
one another. We've learned not to expect much from our limited leaders
and to vigorously shower after prolonged contact. Retirement, it's a nice long term vision. How's yours?

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Kindred's President Ben Breier disposed of 122,625 shares for $19.15 per share on September 20, 2015. That represented 22% of Breir's total shares of Kindred. The reason for his sale of nearly $2,350,000 in stock is:

F — Payment of exercise price or tax liability by delivering or withholding securities incident to the receipt, exercise or vesting of a security issued in accordance with Rule 16b-3

If $2.3 million is his tax liability Breier is getting a monster vesting. When will it hit?

Monday, September 21, 2015

The employee survey showed management does not communicate with staff, management does not support or show appreciation to staff, and employees have gone long periods without raises and feel underpaid. Management's response is "we don't really know who employees are talking about and what their specific issues are in each area. Thus, we don't know how to respond."

They can't stick their heads out of their office door and ask the seventy something clinicians and support staff for clarification? The survey group hasn't gone anywhere and are readily available to explore the results. Management doesn't want to know, which reinforces that they don't care. I'll be shocked if anyone fills out the survey next year. It's Dilbert in action at our hospice site.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

PharMerica Corp. and Kindred Healthcare have agreed in principle to
out-of-court settlements in a whistleblower suit that implicated the
companies in alleged massive kickback schemes involving a popular anemia
treatment medicine.

Amgen paid kickbacks to PharMerica, the second-largest pharmacy services
company in long-term care, and Kindred Healthcare Inc., an operator of
hospitals, LTAC hospitals, nursing homes and more, to induce providers
and pharmacists to switch patients from the drug Procrit to Amgen's drug
Aranesp.

Settlement details are expected with 45 days. The second story could produce skeltons at a Kindred hospital in California:

The striking nurses say working without a contract is not helping when it comes to patient care. Management has delayed an agreement for 20 months and during that time,
the poor conditions that led us to organize in the first place, have
continued to erode," says Janet Williams, an RN in the Medical/Surgical
Unit who has worked there for more than 14 years, says in a union
statement. "We feel we have no choice but to strike to ensure that these
issues are addressed so we can deliver the highest quality of care for
our patients all year long."

On Aug. 3, Florida Governor Rick Scott ordered audits on 29 hospitals that failed to meet an
Aug. 1 deadline for the requested information. All the Kindred Hospitals
were part of that list, including one in Ocala. Shands Live Oak
Regional Medical Center in Suwannee County and Lake Butler Hospital in
Union County also were on that first list.

Gentiva is now a Kindred company. Apparently, the buyer is as corrupt as Gentiva's former senior management team.